This study guide was researched and designed by the Education De- Inside this guide partment at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and is intended to pre- pare you for your visit. It contains information that will deepen your Synopsis/ understanding of, and appreciation for, the production. We’ve also 2 About the Author included questions and activities for you to explore before and after our performance of Endgame.

Supplementary If you would like to schedule a classroom workshop, or if we can 3 Information help in any other way, please contact:

The Audience / 4 Jenny Kostreva at (414) 290-5370 or [email protected] Visiting the Rep Andy North at (414) 290-5393 or [email protected]

Study Guide written by Editing by Andy North, Kristin Crouch, Education Coordinator Literary Director

Katie Kowbel, Jenny Kostreva, Education Intern Education Director

Our study guides are generously sponsored by Page 2

Synopsis

The play opens in a dark, grey room with two win- before. Nagg attempts to cheer Nell up by telling her a joke, dows. Hamm sits in a wheeled armchair center stage, cov- but she remains impassive. Hamm roars at them to be silent, ered with a sheet. There are two trash bins onstage, also and when Clov enters Hamm orders him to throw the bins into covered with a sheet. Clov, Hamm’s servant, enters to per- the sea. Clov crosses to the trash bins and reports that Nell form his daily ritual: removing the sheets, peering into the has died. bins, and looking through both windows to check up on the The survivors continue their verbal sparring. Hamm outside world. Having done this, he exits. asks Clov to report on the world outside, which Clov describes Hamm awakens and summons Clov. Hamm de- as “gray” and “corpsed.” The two are terrified by the idea of mands that Clov cover him with the sheet, since he is ready continued life on earth. Clov discovers a flea, which forces for bed. Clov refuses on the grounds that Hamm has just both men into a panic - “Humanity might start from there all woken up. “I can’t be getting you up and putting you to bed over again!” Hamm cries, and Clov douses himself liberally every five minutes, I have things to do,” he complains. with flea powder.

Over the course of their following conversations, we Hamm then works on his “chronicle,” an autobiogra- learn more about the relationship between the two men. phy (which may or may not be true) that he adds to a little Clov repeatedly threatens to leave the blind and immobile each day. He tells the story of a man who came to him from Hamm to fend for himself, which would be a death sentence the wasteland and asked him to take in his son. It is possible for both of them. Hamm is the only one who knows the com- that this is the story of how Hamm and Clov came to live to- bination to the cupboard where food is kept, and Clov would gether. be unable to forage for food in the wasteland outside. Clov checks the windows again and spots a boy in the Their conversation is interrupted by the appear- wasteland. He picks up a gaff (a large, sharp hook on a han- ance of Nagg, Hamm’s father, who pops his head out from dle), intending to kill the “potential procreator,” but Hamm one of the trash bins and demands food. Hamm angrily or- calls him off. ders Clov to feed the “accursed progenitor” and stuff him Hamm dismisses Clov, claiming he no longer needs back into the bin. him. Clov fetches his traveling clothes and stands in the door- Clov exits and Hamm drifts off to sleep, giving Nagg way watching Hamm. Hamm blows his whistle to summon a chance to come out again. He knocks on the other trash Clov, who does not react. The play ends as Hamm, believing bin and his wife Nell emerges. The two attempt to kiss, but himself alone, throws his whistle away and covers his face they are too far apart. Neither can leave their bin, having with his handkerchief while Clov looks on, silent and unmov- both lost their legs together in a bicycle accident many years ing.

About the Author: Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett was born in Ireland in 1906. Writing ano student. He was forced to flee the city and travel were his favorite pastimes: he spent much of his after several of his resistance comrades were youth writing poems and stories and journeying through Ire- arrested, but returned after the war to begin land, France, England and Germany. He became a close the most prolific period of his writing career. friend of James Joyce, and helped the man to write what Between 1945 and 1950, he wrote what would eventually become the novel Finnegan’s Wake. would become his two most well-known plays, Waiting for Godot and Endgame. Beckett suffered from depression from a young age, later remarking “I had little talent for happiness.” He spurned Beckett’s works reflected his bleak the advances of James Joyce’s daughter Lucia, creating ten- outlook on life, flavored with grim humor. He was fascinated sion between the two authors and leading Beckett to believe with the way humans use humor as a way to move forward in that he himself “was dead and had no feelings that were hu- the face of hopelessness or terror. As successful as he be- man.” came, Beckett was never convinced that there was value even in his own work: he called his writings “an unnecessary stain During World War II, Beckett stayed in Paris and be- on silence and nothingness” and described winning the Nobel came a member of the French resistance. It was there that Prize for Literature as a “catastrophe.” Despite this, he contin- he met his future wife, Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil, a pi- ued to write steadily until his death in 1989. Page 3

Supplementary Information

Absurdism Endgame and Chess

Absurdism is the term for a movement in drama and An endgame is a term used in chess prose fiction based on the idea that man’s condition is mean- to describe the point in a match where the ingless, and any attempt to understand it or create meaning outcome is known: so although the game for one’s existence is ridiculous. As Eugene Ionesco, a French continues, one player is guaranteed victory absurdist, writes, “Cut off his religious, metaphysical, and tran- after a certain number of moves. Beckett scendental roots, man is lost; all his actions become sense- uses this as a metaphor for life: regardless of less, absurd, useless.” the “moves” one makes, we are all doomed from the start. The absurdist movement began in France immedi- ately after World War II, as a rebellion against the previously- The play is littered with further chess held idea that man was a rational being who lived in a patially- imagery: Hamm and Clov are “very red- intelligible universe - ideas that some found hard to swallow faced”, and wear costumes with red accents, whereas Nell after the horrors of the war. and Nagg are pale and dressed in white. Hamm is akin to the King: the most powerful piece on the board, he is also the Absurdist works typically ignore theatrical conventions most vulnerable, having limited mobility. His only true power is of plot, setting and characterization. Situations and dialogue his ability to control the other characters, since he is the only are often repetitive or seemingly nonsensical. These works one who knows the combination to the cabinet where food strive to emphasize the idea of man’s struggle to find meaning and medicine are kept. Clov moves according to Hamm’s or- and purpose in a world he does not fully understand, and the ders, and Nagg and Nell are allowed to come out of their trash sense of loneliness, futility and despair which accompanies bins only at Hamm’s pleasure. Finally, Hamm’s repeated line this struggle. “Me to play” is a phrase uttered by chess players to indicate that it is their turn to move.

“Nothing is funnier than unhappiness” Post-show Discussion Questions

Beckett described this line, spoken by Nell midway Where does the story take place? What do the production through Endgame, as key to the play’s interpretation and per- elements (light, set design, costumes) tell you about the formance. The situation Beckett constructs for the beginning setting of the play? of the play is hopeless: nothing can save the four characters in What is the significance of the character’s names? the shelter, who are all crippled and running low on supplies in the middle of a barren wasteland. The characters all toy with What happens to Clov after the end of the play? Based on the idea of their own deaths, and the greatest sin (to Hamm at the nature of the story, and what you’ve seen about his least) would be to reproduce and bring another being into the relationship to Hamm, do you think he will leave? world to be miserable. Thus, Nagg is labeled the “accursed progenitor,” the flea in Clov’s trousers is killed in case it starts Who are these characters? What is the nature of the rela- the human race over again, and Clov’s first instinct upon see- tionships between Hamm/Clov, Hamm/Nagg, Nagg/Nell? ing the boy outside is to kill him with a gaff. Are there any hints in the text about who these people were before the beginning of the play? Nevertheless, Beckett’s aim in many of his works was to find the humor in situations of utter despair or hopeless- ness. The humor in Endgame comes from the wordplay and Sources tactics employed by each character in their neverending strug- Beckett by Richard N. Coe. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1964 gle for dominance over one another. The dialogue in Endgame follows the repetitive set-up/punchline structure employed by Beckett: a Study of His Plays by John Fletcher and John Spurl- comic duos like Abbott and Costello. Beckett uses comedy not ing. London: Eyre Methuen, 1972. to relieve tension, but to highlight the absurdity of our day-to- Twentieth Century Interpretations of Endgame: A Collection fo day routines by magnifying them: as Oscar Wilde said, “If you Critical Essays edited by Bell Galle Chevigny. New Jersey: Pren- want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise tice-Hall, 1969. they’ll kill you.” The Milwaukee Repertory Theater The Audience Department of Education You can sit there and have a universal experi- ence, of fear, of anger, of tears, of love, and I dis- Jenny Kostreva, Education Director covered that it’s the audience, really, that is do- [email protected] ing the acting.- Marlon Brando (414) 290-5370

Andy North, Education Coordinator Theater is a collaborative art form. The [email protected] success of a production relies upon every mem- (414) 290-5393 ber of the ensemble performing their role ex- pertly, from the cast and crew to the adminis- trative staff to the audience themselves. Come Programs in the Education Department receive prepared to make your contribution as a mem- generous funding from: ber of the audience. You have an active role to Target play, and the performers are relying on you to The Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation be respectful and attentive. Months of prepara- Rockwell Automation tion, weeks of rehearsal and hours upon hours The Harley-Davidson Foundation of effort have gone towards providing the best The Einhorn Family Foundation MPS Partnership for the Arts possible performance for you. Your participation The Johnson Controls Foundation is what makes this process worthwhile.

Visiting The Rep …

Milwaukee Repertory Theater is housed in the Milwaukee Center at the corner of Wells and Water Streets, downtown. Our building was formerly the home of Electric Railway & Light Company. This name is still carved on the wall outside.

You’ll enter on the Wells Street side into a large, open space. Our box office will be visible on your left as you come through the front doors. The large space is the main hub for the busi- nesses that share this building: a bank, an office tower, the Pabst Theater and the Intercontinental Hotel. If you walk into the center of this area, you’ll see a staircase on your left. Behind this staircase is the entrance to the Stiemke Theater.

Inside the lobby are restrooms, water fountains and a coat check. If you decide to bring a snack, please know that food and drink are NOT permitted in the theater. However, you can leave things (at your own risk) in the coat check room, and enjoy them outside the theater during the intermission. Most plays have one intermission that is about 20 minutes long. You might also want to look for signs in the lobby which give the full “running time” of the play.

If you arrive forty-five minutes before the show, you can participate in a FREE pre-show talk called Rep In Depth. An actor from the show usually leads this discussion. This person will tell you a little about the play, the playwright, and the period in which the show is set. Often, they will also share stories about the design and re- hearsal process. You can ask questions too!

For information on our education programs and our productions, visit our website at www.milwaukeerep.com